The present invention relates generally to methods and systems for providing roaming among communications systems, and more particularly, to a method and system for transmitting access specific and/or application specific information from a visiting access network to a home network using public internet protocol networks.
A variety of wireless mobile communication systems now cover a large portion of the world""s surface. Such an expansive coverage is accomplished by a number of different networks operating in specific locations throughout the world. These multiple networks unfortunately also have multiple access types. In order to service users while traveling, or roaming, in other networks, service providers have had to develop methods for providing service to their subscribers while in other networks.
One method for handling the problem of multiple access types is to provide an architecture for separating access specific aspects of roaming from the access independent aspects of roaming. One such architecture has been defined in cdma2000 wherein terminal equipment is authenticated through an access specific means and user registration is accomplished through an access independent means.
In current methods, the two access means are physically separated in the architecture. In the above example, the terminal equipment authentication is performed using specific protocols over the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or a private (protected) network. Security is therefore enforced by isolating the communication path from unauthorized access.
The user conversely is typically authenticated using internet protocol (IP) based protocols running over a shared public IP network. For example, a user will typically have a home IP network from which service is provided. When roaming to other networks, or xe2x80x9cvisited access networksxe2x80x9d, the user may still want to receive service. The visited access network contains a function called AAA-F. The AAA-F stores information about roaming partners and/or available brokers. The home network contains a function designated AAA-H which has a database of all subscribers and performs the authentication of a user.
Between the home network and a visited access network a number of broker functions, designated AAA-B, may be present. Access independent information is typically transmitted between the AAA functions over a public IP network. These transmissions are secured by the use of shared secrets and encryption and eventually a Public Key Infrastructure.
Unfortunately, the use of PSTN networks and private networks increases costs for service providers and reduces the scalability of their systems. Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system which does not use PSTN or private networks to carry signaling information for roaming, which employs public IP networks to transmit access specific and/or application specific information between networks and which transmits the access specific and/or application specific information using available protocols.
This need is met by the method and system of the present invention in which specific information, which may be access specific and/or application specific information is transmitted between visiting and home networks using public IP networks.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a method for transmitting specific information between a home network and a visiting access network is provided. Specific information may comprise access specific roaming information and/or application specific information. The home network and visiting access network are capable of communicating access independent roaming information in a protocol, such as a AAA protocol with AAA encryption. The specific information is formatted in the protocol. The specific information is then transmitted over a public IP network between the home network and the visiting network.
The specific information may be registration or authentication information. The AAA protocol may be a DIAMETER protocol. The step of formatting the specific information in a AAA protocol may comprise the step of encrypting the specific information at an access control server in the visiting network. Alternatively, for application specific information, encryption may be performed by an application server. The method may comprises the steps of transmitting the encrypted specific information from the visiting network to the home network and decrypting the encrypted specific information at the home network. Depending upon the relationship between the visiting network and the home network, the formatted specific information may be transmitted to a broker AAA server. The broker AAA server then routes the formatted specific information to a HLR for access specific information, or to a application home server for application specific information, based on routing information in the broker AAA server.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method for providing access specific and access independent roaming capabilities between a home access network and a visiting access network is provided. The method comprising the steps of: encrypting the access specific information in a secure protocol at an access control server in the visiting access network to form formatted access specific information; providing the formatted access specific information to an AAA-F server associated with the visiting access network; transmitting the formatted access specific information to the home access network over a public IP network and decrypting the access specific information at the home access network.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for transmitting application specific information between a visiting network and a home network. The home network and visiting network are capable of communicating access independent roaming information in a protocol, such as a AAA protocol with AAA encryption. The application specific information is formatted in the protocol. The application specific information is then transmitted over a public IP network between the home network and the visiting network.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, a system for transmitting specific information, such as access specific roaming information and/or application specific information, between a visiting network and a home network over a public IP network is provided. The system includes a server associated with the visiting network for formatting the specific information using a secure AAA protocol to form formatted specific information. A AAA-F server associated with the visiting network transmits the formatted specific information over the public IP network to the home network.
The system may further comprise a HLR server associated with the home network for receiving formatted access specific information and for providing the formatted specific information to the home network. A broker network may receive the formatted specific information from the public IP network and route the formatted specific information over the public IP network to the home network. The access control server may provide an international mobile subscriber identity in the access specific information which identifies the AAA-H server.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings and the appended claims.